Chile

This weekend has been a low, sad and dangerous time in Chile so I decided to write and to try to explain a little bit what’s happening there and why, from a neutral perspective

The usual news in Chile, depending on if we read the news or the sports section, are strikes or people taking over the streets to protest against government policies. The list is long: health, education, pensions, cost of life, etc.

This weekend things just went beyond control: metro (public transport) prices went from $800 to $830 and while it may not appear to be much, it was like the last drop needed to cause people to manifest, even with violence. That forced the government to declare state of emergency and to send military force to the streets – to basically prohibit anyone to move out of their homes

So far numbers are about 5 deaths, 1400 people arrested, 70 serious incidents of violence, including 40 looting of supermarkets and many businesses set on fire. All public transport paralysed (7 million people unable to travel to around), 95 flights cancelled and about 4500 persons trapped in the main airport waiting for this to solve

The picture may look similar to news from countries far away, from decades ago, yet that it happening just now in what we are proud to sell like the best country in Latin America. So the basic questions if “how they did not see that coming?”

I recall years ago reading an article that pointed that every 40 years or so Chile faces social or internal problems like this. I also recall talking about that with my friends and hoping that would not happen. But as earthquakes and other natural disasters, it seems like a cyclic process

Chile faced similar events August 1949 (70 years ago) – an increase in the prices of the public transport lead to manifestations, violence, then couple changes and the feeling of Chile “waking up” (see below)

Another recent article from a Yale professor also makes reference to that but making a difference on what the actual events are deeper and meant to stay. But I would disagree, as regardless of the results of these or future events, the country seems like cursed to sleep again after these “wake up” moments

Simon Bolivar said: “Subject to the threefold yoke of ignorance, tyranny, and vice, the American (Latin America) people have been unable to acquire knowledge, power, or [civic] virtue … We have been ruled more by deceit than by force, and we have been degraded more by vice than by superstition. Slavery is the daughter of Darkness: an ignorant people is a blind instrument of its own destruction”

How true and fit to this are these words now, if we look back in time, after 17 years of Pinochet’s military government (tyranny) a generation in Chile experienced democracy. Along with that, and just after a violent period, the country was divided in basically right and left wings. Years with democracy things didn’t changed much, everyone was either pro military government (right) or against that (left). Politicians used that to gain crew and to place themselves into the government. In most cases, the revolutionary talks or promises all turned to be just that, promises. Left and right wings at the end partied together and lived comfortably more or less in the same privileged areas of the country. Still, most people believed in right or left ideals (ruled by deceit)

To illustrate the point, a graphic of the salary of a politician in Chile, both right and left, compared to the minimum wage/salary. At some point late 2002, just 10 years of fresh running democracy, politicians decided to give themselves a 150% raise, because, why not? But nobody complained or went to the streets like this weekend (no civic virtue). Still today politicians in Chile earn more than their peers in USA, Germany, Japan… and nobody said a thing

https://ciperchile.cl/wp-content/uploads/Salarios-Camara-Baja.pdf

Just for reference, the evolution of the metro/public transport price, over time

Metro prices have been raising and can be argued to be high or ok, depending on income and usage, but this weekend and the week before, social media was on the #ChileDespierta mindset, protesting for all the social problems at once. Left wing politicians (still after 40+ years with the same song) promoting themselves as the solution to the problem and people again and again following them?

It is really sad to see how to “evade” payment of services was depicted as way to protest, or how destroying public transport or local businesses was celebrated. Unbelievable and sad to see friends justifying it, can’t they see is just deceit, manipulation mixed with violence?

I feel really sad about my home country, even while I wish things were better there I can’t really expect things to improve much, given Latin America seems like just unable to get out of the yoke